Foreign Ministers of Iran, Turkey and Brazil have met in Istanbul to begin a new round of diplomacy to bring about a negotiated end to Iran's nuclear crisis.

Ahead of the meeting, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that the three Ministers would “exchange views on the developments related to the tripartite agreement on [a] fuel swap,” IRNA reported.

In May, the three countries had signed a nuclear fuel agreement under which Iran would receive medium enriched uranium fuel in return for bulk exports to Turkey of lightly enriched uranium produced domestically by Tehran. The global powers, led by the United States had then rejected the deal, anchored by the Tehran Declaration, and ,had instead rapidly pushed for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran.

Iran has earlier announced that the Tehran Declaration would frame its future talks with the West.

Corroborating this perception, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Istanbul on Sunday at a joint press conference with his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim , that the Tehran agreement had “created a framework,” for the talks ahead.

“This is a facilitating instrument for increasing confidence building measures,” Mr. Davutoglu observed. On his part, Mr. Amorim said that both Iran and the global powers should show flexibility in order to bridge their differences.

“We will always encourage Iran to take a flexible position,” Mr. Amorim said, but added that “other countries should act accordingly”.

“We believe Iran should be able to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme, but also give the world assurances that it has no military component.”

Mr. Davutoglu said that the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had already said that Tehran could hold talks with the European Union, in early September after the observance of the holy month of Ramadan. “Mr. Mottaki confirmed that he was in favour of the meeting after Ramadan. Obviously that depends on the flow of developments, but nobody is against holding the meeting in principle,” Mr. Davutoglu said.

“As soon as possible we are trying to start negotiations again between Iran and P5+1 [the five permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and Germany] and we will also do our best in order to start the technical negotiations as soon as possible,” the Turkish Foreign Minister observed.